The Kaspersky antivirus program may not be as popular as some of the others but it is certainly the most reliable and ranks a lot better than even the most popular antivirus programs.

Many people probably have only a vague idea of what the Kaspersky antivirus is. It is not surprising considering that the home and small office antivirus industry is dominated by maybe three companies who consider themselves the "giants" of the industry.

But even if you are not particularly familiar with Kasapersky, chances are you may have already used their technology because dozens of other antivirus manufacturers actually use Kaspersky's antivirus engine to power their own.

Information technology professionals are nowadays leaning towards recommending Kaspersky to their clients. The reason is not because Kaspersky is the highest-rated antivirus or because of the truckload of awards they have won, but for the simple reason that their own tests have shown that it can detect some viruses that even the giants' programs could not. This scenario is of concern to these professionals simply because of the serious risks that undetected viruses pose and the false sense of security that arises when you think that your computers are actually virus-free.

Kaspersky offers their home and small office antivirus solutions both as a standalone or as a total security suite. What this means is that you can purchase only the antivirus program or opt for the security suite which includes a firewall, a website filter, spyware detector and anti-spam protection for your emails.

One of the most outstanding features that I.T. professionals will tell you is that Kaspersky products consistently ranked well among important third-party antivirus testing sites and is considered to be both faster and more reliable. And without doubt, the most important aspect is that they update their virus signatures the fastest among any of the other vendors. Add to this their ability to deliver timely virus analysis. That translates to faster availability of protection against newly detected viruses.

Their firewall also blocks out more suspected malicious websites than other similar programs would. In a C-Net review, the Kaspersky firewall blocked out a particular website that is known for installing adware while their competitors did not. The antispam utility integrates easily into your Microsoft Outlook programs and provides high detection rates of spam and phishing attacks. The stability and consistency are quite exceptional.

While their positive reviews and awards abound, Kaspersky has often been begrudged by non-professionals for being too pricey. However if one should compare their products head-to-head with others, the pricey part is only for about $10. The standalone antivirus program is $39.95 and the security suite is $59.95. Buy more than one license and you will receive a discount of up to 69% on Kaspersky Lab products.

From a professional's point of view, this is a price worth paying for the reliability that their products deliver. Another way of looking at it is that the small price differential is but a fraction of what you might end up paying when having to ask for technical support or repair of your entire computer system.

Consider also that a poorly secured computer system can easily be exploited by some clever hackers. You may have read about phishing email scams where hackers easily gain entry into the careless user's computer system and steal all the sensitive financial information inside. These stories are real and if you do store your personal information within your computer, is the small price differential worth the risk of losing all your hard-earned money?

As with most other antivirus programs, Kaspersky offers a free trial of their products for a month. This is sufficient time for you to evaluate whether it is the right product for you. Aside from that, they also have promotions where you can receive a discount on Kaspersky Lab products . There is also an extensive FAQ and help section in their website which are both very useful for users who choose to evaluate their products.

Try the online version of Kaspersky Antivirus and see its exceptional detection rate for yourself. The online version of the antivirus scanner requires that you run at least version 6 of MS Internet Explorer. There is an initial download of about 9MB of files and antivirus definitions in order to execute the online scan, this is perfectly safe.

Please note that the online version will only scan and detect malicious software that have already infiltrated your pc. It does not provide full protection. For this, you must buy the full version from Kaspersky.

Start your online scan now.